Teen sentenced to life for killing 15-year-old girl

An 18-year-old Milwaukee man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for the brutal death of 15-year-girl and hiding her body in a crawl space of an abandoned south side house.

Eduardo Ivanez won't be eligible to seek parole until he's 70 under the sentence imposed by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner.

A jury convicted Ivanez in October of first-degree intentional homicide for the death of Stephanie Romero in April. He also was found guilty of hiding a corpse.

According to the criminal complaint, Ivanez, who was 17 at the time, and Romero went to a vacant house in the 2500 block of W. Rogers St., where they and others regularly smoked marijuana. But when some other friends went to the house the evening of April 13, they found Romero on the floor bleeding from the mouth. Ivanez said he'd just had sex with Romero. He grabbed her neck and stomped on her, before one friend helped him carry Romero to a bathroom, where Ivanez then stabbed her.

Two days later, Ivanez returned to vacant house and moved Romero's body to a crawl space. The victim was discovered there April 20.